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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Thursday, October 27, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Dancing in the rain...

You Still Here? Thursday, October 27, 2022

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

[{"type":"text","text":"The room Roman Parra left behind still looks much the way he left it."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His Bible remains on the coffee table at his home in Worland. "}]

His truck still needs a suspension repair he never got to finish with his father.

And in the days since the 20-year-old former Worland athlete died from injuries suffered in a northern Colorado rollover crash, family members say those ordinary reminders have become priceless.

, Colorado State Patrol said Parra was critically injured July 25 when the Chevrolet Tahoe he was driving rolled on Weld County Road 80 near Eaton, ejecting all five occupants. Three Colorado passengers died at the scene. A fourth passenger survived with minor injuries. Parra remained hospitalized for eight days before dying Sunday. 

Cowboy State Daily requested the official crash summary from the Colorado State Patrol but had not received the report before publication. 

 that the State Patrol said that speed and impairment contributed to the crash, though a cause hasn’t yet been determined.

Now, those who knew Roman best say they hope he is remembered not for the crash but for the life he lived.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Mother's Worst Call"}]

Roman's mother, Alyssa McDonald, said Saturday had been an ordinary summer day.

She had taken Roman's younger sister to the fair parade before returning home to surprise her oldest son by cleaning his bedroom.

[{"type":"text","text":"Roman had driven to Colorado the night before for a concert with friends."}]

As she folded clothes and straightened his room, she expected him to walk back through the front door the next day.

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead, at about 5:15 p.m., her phone buzzed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Life360 app she used to keep track of Roman showed a collision."}]

"I texted, called, panicked when I saw there was no movement," said McDonald. 

She hoped his phone had simply fallen to the floor or been tossed across the vehicle.

[{"type":"text","text":"When the location never changed, she called police and waited."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Nearly two hours later, the hospital called."}]

"They told me there had been a bad accident and my son was involved," she said. "Three had passed away at the scene, but Roman had survived."

[{"type":"text","text":"Doctors rushed him into emergency brain surgery."}]

"The chance of him making it off the table was very unlikely," she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"For over a week, his family remained by his bedside before Parra died."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Faith Before Football"}]

Long before he became one of Wyoming's top linebackers, Parra was the little boy who wanted one thing more than anything else.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He just never wanted to let me down,\" McDonald said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"His faith grew naturally alongside him, she added. "}]

As a second-grader, teachers noticed he signed the bottom of school assignments with the words "God is Good." 

Near graduation, one of his teachers asked what he wanted to do with his life.

"My first priority is my relationship with Christ," he replied, according to his mother.

Looking back, McDonald said she believes that answer explained the way he lived.

"I think that was probably his purpose in life — to spread that kindness, that joy and Christ's love," she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"His aunt, Daniela Parra, saw the same thing."}]

If someone challenged Roman's beliefs, she said, he didn't argue emotionally.

"He would fight for God all the time," she said. "If somebody said something, he could back it up with Scripture."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Competitor On Every Field"}]

In his final high school football game in the fall of 2024, McDonald said Parra tore his meniscus.

[{"type":"text","text":"Coaches wanted to pull him from the game."}]

He finished the game and scored the final touchdown of his high school career.

In the spring of 2025, he again played through the same injury during the state soccer tournament because he didn't want to leave his teammates behind.

When football ended, Roman spent the summer working construction alongside his father while preparing to attend Laramie County Community College this fall to study automotive technology.

Asked what his son had taught him over the past 20 years, Armando Parra paused.

"He taught me peace and patience," he said. "As much as you raise a kid, a kid raises you."

[{"type":"text","text":"He credits Roman with helping him become a better man."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He changed my life,\" Armando said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He Was That Loved'"}]

The waiting room rarely emptied during Parra's eight days in the hospital.

[{"type":"text","text":"Friends drove from Cheyenne after work."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Football families stopped in."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Strangers from Eaton, Colorado, brought food, water and supplies."}]

One mother loaned the family a wagon so they could haul meals through the hospital.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Daniela, none of it came as a surprise."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I expected it,\" she said. \"He was that loved.\""}]

She remembers her nephew as the young man who encouraged everyone around him.

[{"type":"text","text":"His father said Roman never limited his friendships to teammates."}]

"He was friends with everybody," Armando said. "He fit in everywhere. He talked to everybody."

 to help cover Roman's medical and funeral expenses.

Armando also asked for prayers for the lone survivor of the crash, saying he believes the young man now faces an unimaginable burden.

"I feel worse for him than I feel for anybody," he said. "That poor boy that has to live through this is going to need more guidance than anybody I know."

Roman Wesley Parra and new Colorado crash location 8 3 26

<title>Worland Man Dies Sunday, Eight Days After Being Ejected From Car In Colorado | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Worland athlete Roman Parra died Sunday, eight days after being ejected from his vehicle in Colorado. His family said Roman's greatest gift wasn't in sports, but making everyone feel loved. "His purpose in life was to spread kindness," his mom said.

Worland Man Dies Sunday, Eight Days After Being Ejected From Car In Colorado

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

The removal of a placard mentioning a massacre of Native Americans from the Grand Teton National Park's Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center is an example of censorship by the Trump administration, says a former Park Service ranger who quit in protest over similar decisions across the country.

In April, Melissa Dalley left her job at the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in New York and joined the Resistance Rangers, a group of current and former Park Service personnel opposed to Trump’s policies related to sites managed by the Park Service.

She also helped form America 443+, an anti-censorship group named in reference to the Park Service's 433 sites around the country.

She was in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks July 21-27 on a family vacation but also to spread her message.

“We’re not advocating for any action or any political candidate; we’re saying (to park visitors), ‘You deserve to have the whole story,’” including parts that the Trump administration apparently doesn’t like, she said.

Richard Jones, a rural Park County resident and retired Forest Service and Park Service ranger, has a different view of the administration’s actions.

He said he thinks Trump and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are trying to set right the Park Service’s historical mission after years of “woke” misguidance.

“I’m certainly happy to see the Trump administration ask for these things in parks, look at them with another eye, and maybe get rid of things that aren’t really part of the story,” Jones told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Controversial Order"}]

The controversy traces back to Trump’s March 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

It called upon the Park Service to remove or revise exhibits, signs and educational materials that the administration deemed negative toward the United States by promoting “false revision of history.”

Burgum followed up in May 2025, directing implementation of the policy. That included reviews and QR codes calling for public complaints about “negative” material.

On June 12, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley blocked the administration’s policy and ordered the restoration of dismantled signs and exhibits within 21 days.

The administration filed an appeal shortly after the ruling to block the mandated restoration.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Chilling Effect"}]

Dalley said that while she was still working for the Park Service, personnel were ordered to document displays or signs that might be deemed inappropriate under the executive order and send that information up the Interior Department chain of command.

She said that was mostly done quietly until somebody leaked the database of inappropriate material.

Dalley said she started tracking the censorship herself and noticed a chilling effect among Park Service employees.

She said when it got to where she felt she was being asked to lie to the public, she quit in protest.

“I do hope to go back, and plan to go back to the Park Service after this administration,” she said.

She said current employees have reached out to her and reported terrible morale in the Park Service.

She added that when she was in Yellowstone and Grand Teton, she didn’t pry into park employees’ feelings and opinions because she didn’t want to put them in an “uncomfortable position.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Ghost Of The Sign’"}]

Dalley said that, to her knowledge, when the call went out to the Park Service for an inventory of problematic material, Yellowstone “had nothing to report.”

However, the placard in the Grand Teton visitor center was deemed inappropriate and removed, she said.

It mentioned 19th-century explorer and U.S. Army officer Gustavus Cheyney Doane.

Doane was remembered for the 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition to the Yellowstone region, which helped lay the groundwork for the national parks.

The placard also mentioned Doane’s involvement in the massacre of Piegan Blackfeet people near the Marias River in Montana on Jan. 23, 1870. Soldiers killed 173 to 200 Native Americans.

Doane is said to have bragged about his involvement in the massacre.

“In the visitor center, you can still see the ghost of the sign,” or the place on the wall where the placard was mounted, Dalley said.

During her visit, Dalley said she handed out printouts depicting the placard before it was removed and invited people to have conversations about it.

“The Blackfeet are still around, they are active and they are American citizens, they deserve to have their story told along with everyone else,” she said.

She hopes that her actions can “inspire other people” to start pushing back against censorship.

Jones said he doesn’t consider actions such as removing the Doane placard to be censorship.

Rather, the Trump administration is trying to restore the Park Service’s mission of preserving history directly relevant to national parks and other sites.

“The Park Service was always one of the best agencies for interpreting the history of each area,” he said.

However, he said he thinks that over the past decade or so, other material has been added to historical accounts to push a “woke” narrative.

Materials such as the Doane placard added details that were “minor, irrelevant and derogatory to the story that was being told,” he said.

Trump former ranger and Grand Teton sign headquarters MN via Alamy 8 3 26

<title>Ranger Who Quit Over Trump Policies Calls Removing Grand Teton Placard Censorship | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Park Service ranger who quit over Trump's policies says removing a placard at the Grand Teton visitor center about a massacre of Blackfeet was censorship. A retired ranger from Wyoming says Trump's just doing away with years of “woke” misguidance.

Ranger Who Quit Over Trump Policies Calls Removing Grand Teton Placard Censorship

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Public Safety

Wildfires are burning homes and habitat across the western U.S., filling the skies with smoke, but even these fearsome flames can have incredible moments of beauty.

 witnessed along the banks of the Snake River in eastern Idaho on Sunday. As the fire raged near Heise, the conflicting wind currents came together into a twirling spire of destruction.

“It came and went for a couple of minutes, at least,” Duke told Cowboy State Daily. “It would spin up and die down, and then do it again.”

The Big Rock Fire started on the north bank of the Snake River, 30 miles west of the Wyoming state line, on July 31. As of Monday afternoon, the lightning-strike fire had burned nearly 2,500 acres and was 0% contained.

Duke lives around three miles from where the first flames were spotted. Since it was burning away from him, he decided to step outside to get some photos.

“I was working in the yard and could see the fire off in the distance,” he said. “I've got a pretty big wildlife lens on my camera, so I figured I’d try to go get a few action shots of helicopters dumping water buckets.”

From across the river, Duke could see the fire spreading and brush spontaneously bursting into flames from the surrounding heat.

As he watched and documented, the flames suddenly started swirling together. As multiple spokes of flame came together, they were thrust into the air.

“I was about a mile away from the spin,” he said. “It's hard to say how high it went, but I would guess a couple hundred feet.”

The spiral would slow down and collapse, only to surge upward again with renewed intensity.

“It was changing pretty quickly,” he said. “The sun was going down, temperatures and humidity were changing, and it was going uphill. That all affected how fast it was moving.”

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/jduke8/reel/DbhEfHYPnfu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="display:block;text-decoration:none;color:inherit;width:100%;max-width:460px;background:#ffffff;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;border:1px solid #dedede;box-shadow:0 1px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,'Segoe UI',Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"><div style="width:100%;aspect-ratio:16 / 9;background:rgba(0,0,0,0.05);overflow:hidden"><img src="https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/762864159_3272173343170551_6548764045925133745_n.jpg?stp=cmp1_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&amp;_nc_cat=106&amp;ccb=7-5&amp;_nc_sid=18de74&amp;efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzIifQ%3D%3D&amp;_nc_ohc=5FNZo_pwvpgQ7kNvwGyBTVr&amp;_nc_oc=AdrgLBzSnjRELwx22kMgw4xQRLa1LpxeGfuMrBezQ4JMxYHI87v-Uxz9YXvxhEixvZQ&amp;_nc_zt=23&amp;_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com&amp;_nc_gid=2dkfk_SIZ8mIYJeyZIR6hw&amp;_nc_ss=70689&amp;oh=00_AQHdquCkKLmclx4ZhDHryBm-Osp5zT7jgaVqDE331avfDQ&amp;oe=6A76BBFA" alt="" onerror="this.onerror=null;this.src='https://static.cdninstagram.com/rsrc.php/yr/r/rzWiSjZRxk5.webp';this.style.objectFit='contain';this.style.padding='15%'" style="width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;display:block" /></div><div style="padding:14px 16px;display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:6px"><div style="display:flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;flex-wrap:wrap;min-height:15px"><img src="https://static.cdninstagram.com/rsrc.php/yr/r/rzWiSjZRxk5.webp" alt="" style="width:15px;height:15px;border-radius:4px;flex-shrink:0" /><span style="font-size:11px;font-weight:400;color:#999999;letter-spacing:0.5px;text-transform:uppercase">Instagram</span></div><div style="font-size:16px;font-weight:400;color:#000000;line-height:1.4;margin:0">Justin Duke (@jduke8) • Instagram reel</div><div style="font-size:13px;color:#000000;line-height:1.4;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-line-clamp:3;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;overflow:hidden;margin:0">108 likes, 4 comments - jduke8 on August 1, 2026: “The Big Rock fire spun up this little guy. Check out the trees for scale. #fire #seidaho #fireseason #wildfire”.</div></div></a>

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fire Devils"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"These swirling spirals of fire are seen during many wildfires."}]

Many people call them “fire tornadoes.” Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day would prefer they didn’t.

“It’s not a tornado moving into a wildfire,” Day said. “It’s not a fire strong enough to create a tornado, in terms of what a tornado actually is. Putting ‘-nado’ at the end of things isn’t the correct thing to do.”

Nevertheless, these “fire devils,” as Day prefers to call them, can be extremely dangerous. They result from a wildfire strong enough to essentially create its own weather as it burns and intensifies.

“The heat from the fire generates a lot of rising motion, because hot air has to lift,” Day said. “There’s a natural spin motion in the atmosphere that these tap into. When you combine that vertical motion of the heat and flame with the natural horizontal motion of the wind, you get a ‘fire devil.’”

That’s a distinctly different phenomenon from a tornado, even if they have some superficial similarities.

According to Day, fire devils are a signal that a wildfire is getting worse. As they form, they feed the flames burning at their base.

“These vertical motions draw air up, and when you draw air up, you're pulling oxygen into the fire, which makes it worse,” Day said. “If fire devils pop up, it’s a very dangerous situation for firefighters, and there's nothing you're going to be able to do to mitigate them.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Exorcising Devils"}]

 in southern Utah in July 2025. Jerod DeLay, assistant state forester and fire management officer with the Wyoming State Forestry Division, said he’d “never seen one as large as that.”

When firefighters respond to a wildfire, they don’t try to engage with the flames directly. They attempt to anticipate the fire’s next move and establish fire lines that will, hopefully, cut it off or redirect it into another line.

According to DeLay, fire devils tend to break through fire lines, making them even more dangerous and unpredictable.

“You have to make sure to see if your lines held,” he said in July 2025. “If your lines didn't hold, you make another plan to see where you can go. If they hold, you continue to strengthen and improve the lines that you already have.”

The one thing firefighters won’t do is attack the fire devil. It’s not worth the risk.

“You make sure you’re in a good, safe place and let it run its course,” DeLay said. “It adds another element that you probably weren't expecting.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fire Season In Full Swing"}]

As of Monday, four confirmed wildfires were burning in northeastern Wyoming. Two, the Left Creek and Newton fires, sparked within 

Day, without wanting to jinx anything, said Wyoming was “lucky” to get through a dry July with only a few wildfires.

“I think that the higher humidity and thunderstorm activity we did see really kept the activity down in July,” he said. “We had a lot of thunderstorms that kept the mountains in northwest and western Wyoming very active. Where it fell, that July rain really helped.”

That said, Wyoming’s fire season extends from July through October. If the first days of August are any indication, many potentially dangerous months are ahead.

Duke wasn’t anticipating an evacuation from his Heise home. The fire’s still 0% contained, but responding agencies seem confident they’ll be able to protect people and structures.

“It’s just burning through trees and stuff on public land,” he said. “I don’t think the situation’s improved much, but I know they've got the structures protected, and that's the main concern.”

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And where there’s fire, there’s a chance that a fire devil will spiral up and out of control.

Not every wildfire creates fire devils, but they’re real and potent threats that shouldn’t be underestimated.

“It was remarkable that we got through the month of July with very little activity in terms of wildfires in Wyoming,” Day said. “We dodged the bullet there, but I don't want to shout from the mountaintop that fire season's over. We’re not done, by a long shot.”

Fire tornado 1

<title>100-Foot ‘Fire Devil’ Spirals Out Of Control In Eastern Idaho Wildfire | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A wildfire watcher observing the Big Draw Fire in eastern Idaho on Sunday captured video of a spiraling tower of flame rising more than 100 feet into the air. "Fire devils" are created when flames reach high enough that they swirl.

100-Foot ‘Fire Devil’ Spirals Out Of Control In Eastern Idaho Wildfire

Inside Rawlins Family Church on Sunday afternoon, worshippers paused when the sound of blaring sirens rushed toward East State Street. 

[{"type":"text","text":"No one inside knew exactly what had happened."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But Michelle Greer said she knew it was serious."}]

"We started hearing police cars," Greer told Cowboy State Daily. "Then I stepped outside."

Emergency vehicles from surrounded the intersection where a small bicycle lay twisted on the pavement. Nearby, a black tarp answered everyone's immediate question. 

"I was devastated," Greer said. "I work at the school, and I knew it was one of our kids. My heart was just so broken all day yesterday. I just couldn't even really function." 

The Rawlins Police Department confirmed an 8-year-old boy died Sunday after a collision involving a bicycle and a vehicle around 12:21 p.m. near East State Street and Jefferson Avenue. 

Officers from the Rawlins Fire Department, Carbon County Sheriff's Office, Carbon County EMS and the Wyoming Highway Patrol also responded.

A preliminary Wyoming Highway Patrol report says the boy was riding north on Jefferson Street when he possibly failed to stop at a posted stop sign before entering the intersection with East State Street. A Ram 2500 traveling east on State Street struck the child.

Investigators reported the roads were dry, the weather was clear, and the pickup driver was not injured. 

The crash remains under investigation and authorities have not released additional details.

For Greer, the facts mattered less in the immediate aftermath than the overwhelming sense of loss.

[{"type":"text","text":"As emergency crews worked, people gathered quietly nearby."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They were coming down. They were standing on the street,\" she said. "}]

Roads around the scene were blocked for hours while investigators documented what happened. 

[{"type":"text","text":"'Happy-Go-Lucky' "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash happened in an area where children are a common sight."}]

"State Street is pretty busy," Greer said. "Jefferson is not, but there's a park right behind our church, so there's always kids at the park." 

Only a week earlier, Greer had watched neighborhood children laughing together during a family event at that same spot.

[{"type":"text","text":"The child who died was among them. "}]

"He was there all day playing with all the kids," she recalled. "He was just happy-go-lucky, and he just had a great time the whole day." 

[{"type":"text","text":"That memory has replayed in her mind ever since."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"'We're Praying For Them'"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Greer is also a mother."}]

Her daughter recently turned 18, and her son is 30. She said thinking about the victim's parents has been almost unbearable.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Oh my gosh,\" she said. \"I can't even imagine that phone call.\" "}]

She said members of Rawlins Family Church are praying for the family and want them to know they are ready to help however they can.

"Our hearts go out to them," she said. "We're praying for them, and our church is there if they need any help or counseling." 

As police continue investigating what led to Sunday's tragedy, Greer hopes at least one lesson reaches other families.

Watching children ride bicycles and scooters through town has always made her nervous.

[{"type":"text","text":"Now, she says, it carries a different weight."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It can be gone so fast,\" she said. "}]

Rawlins 20240525 rawlins 1104 4 18 26 1

<title>Rawlins Boy, 8, Dies When Hit By Truck While Riding Bicycle Outside Of Church | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Rawlins churchgoer says her "heart was just so broken" after worshippers stepped outside of Sunday service to find remnants of a bicycle crash that killed an 8-year-old boy. "I work at the school, and I knew it was one of our kids," she said.

Rawlins Boy, 8, Dies When Hit By Truck While Riding Bicycle Outside Of Church

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

As a young man, Cheyenne native George Wienbarg figured out how to trademark the famous Hollywood sign in L.A. He did that because he fell in love with a Korean fashion student and promised to make her line of clothing famous by associating it with that sign. And he has all the receipts....

You Still Here? Thursday, October 27, 2022

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